Everybody got a huge kick out of the Audi Sport quattro Concept that debuted in Frankfurt last year. But with a 700 horsepower hybrid V8 drivetrain, it seemed unlikely it would be come real. Now Audi says that it might — but with some tweaks.

When I saw the concept drawing for the Audi Sport quattro, I was stoked. I thought it looked so…
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Top Gear broke some news this week on the car with a headline that says Audi will build the Sport quattro, but when you actually read the interview chief engineer Ulrich Hackenberg, it sounds a little more conditional.

Namely, Audi has decided that for the Sport quattro to get the green light and make sense financially, it can't be a $160,000 "boutique car." It has to be a volume-seller, and Hackenberg implied that could mean dumping the hybrid setup or giving it a whole range of engines.

He told Top Gear "We used a powerful powertrain to position it. But the potential is to have more volume. It needs a high investment so it makes sense to use other engines.

Hackenberg says he sees the Sport quattro as a four-seat GT car that slots between the forthcoming new Audi TT and the R8. Speaking of the TT, there's some news on that too, emphasis mine:

"I can imagine the TT has much more potential than we have used up to now. That's why we did this Allroad concept. The trend is to smaller crossovers. So for example you could do a crossover TT. It would have a big group of fans."

Uh... huh. OK. Sure. Anyway, I'm excited about a possible production Sport quattro. I like that design a lot, and with more realistic engines and a more down-to-earth price tag, it could have a ton of "Do Want" potential.